Asian Wrestling Championships:
Greco-Roman glory seals team title double for Iran
Nine medals, including four golds, across 10 weight classes saw Iran clinch the Groco-Roman crown at the Asian Wrestling Championships, completing the men’s team title double in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Iran tallied 200 points for a fifth team trophy in six years, and Japan notched up 144 to pip the host to the runner-up spot by two points.
On Tuesday, Saeid Esmaeili and Mohammad-Hadi Saravi rounded off an emphatic campaign by bagging double gold medals, while Mohammadreza Rostami and Rasoul Garmsiri had to settle for a couple of silvers after setbacks against Japanese oppositions in the final showpiece of their respective weight classes.
Meanwhile, Amir-Reza Dehbozorgi was given a wrestling lesson by the host’s reigning back-to-back world champion Zholaman Sharshenbekov in the semifinals, but managed to bounce back to defeat Ilkhom Bakhromov of Uzbekistan (9-0) to take a consolation bronze in the 60kg contests.
Stepping into the 67kg final on the back of three technical-fall victories, former world under-20 champion Esmaeili came from behind to edge Kyrgyzstan’s Razzak Beishekeev for his first Asian senior gold.
The 21-year-old Iranian held out while on the bottom of par terre in the first period, but scored two in the second period with a good second effort when he was on top to silence the home crowd at the Bishkek Arena.
Saravi, a winner of four world and Olympic medals, claimed his second 97kg gold in the competition in dominant fashion, cruising to the top podium without conceding a single point.
The Iranian outclassed Iussuf Matsiyev of Kazakhstan 9-0 in the final, thanks to a pair of gut wrenches from par terre, before a takedown-roll combination to see off the 2022 world U20 silver medalist in just under two minutes.
Saravi has now walked away with a medal in 16 consecutive international tournaments since 2019, all of which ended with victories – 11 golds and five bronzes – and is among the favorites for a podium finish in the upcoming Paris Olympics in the summer.
In the 72kg final, Rostami thought he had done enough to beat Shingo Harada when he used a front headlock at par terre for a pair of rolls to go up 5- 0, but the unheralded Japanese rolled the Iranian with a whizzer with two seconds left in the first period before making the most of his fatigue after the interval to win 9-5.
Garmsiri, meanwhile, was by far the second best against the reigning world under-17 champion Taizo Yoshida in the 82kg showdown.
Leading 3-0 in the second period, Yoshida scored four with a reverse body lock throw and then stopped a front headlock roll attempt for another two points to end the bout at 5:31.
Tuesday’s results came a day after the Iranians had won two golds as well as a silver and a bronze in the Greco-Roman contests.
World superheavyweight champion Amin Mirzazadeh proved to be in his own league at the continental level, defeating the 2018 world bronze medalist Kim Min-seok of South Korea 5-0 in the 130kg final.
Nasser Alizadeh continued his dominance in the Asian Championships with a 5-0 triumph over Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Tursynov in the 87kg final – a fourth successive gold at the competition for the Iranian.
Pouya Dadmarz, a world bronze winner last year, took the 55kg silver after a shock technical-fall loss to North Korean Ro Yu-chol, while Iman Mohammadi recovered from a last-four setback against Japan’s Ayata Suzuki to beat China’s Tan Haodong 10-0 for the 63kg bronze.
Amir Abdi (77kg) was the only Iranian Greco-Roman wrestler to leave Bishkek empty-handed following a 4-3 defeat against Ibragim Magomadov of Kazakhstan in the bronze-medal contest.
The Greco-Roman title followed Iran’s freestyle silverware earlier in the Kyrgyz capital.
Rahman Amouzad (65kg), Amir-Mohammad Yazdani (70kg), Mohammad Nokhodi (79kg), Amirhossein Firouzpour (92kg), and Amirhossein Zare’ (125kg) all finished their campaigns with the gold, with Hossein Abouzari (74kg), Hadi Vafaeipour (86kg), and Mohammad-Hossein Mohammadian (97kg) adding three bronzes to Iran’s medal haul as the country finished atop the table with 190 points – 60 clear of runner-up Japan, with the host in third on 121 points.